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Comic News

marvel Announces Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars

Deadpool is taking the Secret Wars to the next level in Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars, a new War-

zones series that has Wade Wil-son heading back to the original 1984 Secret Wars.

Written by Cullen Bunn (Deadpool Killustrated, Night of the Living Deadpool), the series reveals that Deadpool was actual-ly there for the first Secret Wars, and will show exactly what he was up to off-panel.

“Way back when, right after I had finished Deadpool Kills the Mar-vel Universe, we were looking for something out of the ordinary as a follow up,” Bunn tells Marvel.com. “One of my first suggestions was to have Deadpool thrown back in time into the middle of the original Secret Wars limited series. At the time, we decided to go in a different direction, but the idea of having Wade playing a big, in-continuity role in the events of that series stuck with me.

“When Deadpool introduces himself to the other heroes, most of them have no idea who he is,” Bunn continues. “At least, most of them are unwilling to admit that they know him! As the battle between good and evil commences, Deadpool gets plenty of opportunities to annoy the hell out of

every major hero and villain in the Marvel Universe before the festivities are done!”

DeaDpool’S Secret Secret WarS ShipS in May.

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marvel Announces Secret Wars: Inferno

Marvel has revealed another re-gion of the Battleworld map by announcing a “Warzones” Se-

cret Wars series based on the X-Men’s inferno event.The series is written by Dennis Hopeless

(X-Men: Season One, Cable and X-Force) and drawn by Javier Garron (Cyclops), and will take place in a region of Battleworld borne from a reality where the X-Men lost their battle for Manhattan against the de-mons of Limbo. The story will pick up five years after later, where Manhattan is still a literal Hell on Earth, and Colossus is lea-ding a small band of X-Men to rescue his sister, Magik.“Colossus is a man obsessed. In his mind,

nothing in the world is more important than rescuing his sister from the Inferno. This mission has consumed his entire life for years now. He’s failed four times and is going back in for another round,” Hope-less tells Newsarama. “On the flip side of that, Illyana has been living all these years

as Darkchylde, the all-evil all-powerful ba-dass ruler of the Inferno. That little girl lost routine was a lifetime ago and her brother’s noble quest is laughable.”Fans of the classic 1989 X-Men crossover

will find several key characters returning for this alternate reality sequel, including the Goblin Queen, N’astirch, S’ym, Boom Boom and a brainwashed Havok, plus de-monically possessed version of other Mar-vel characters.“Rereading those original Inferno arcs in

preparation for the series, I was reminded how weird and cool possessed Manhattan was,” Hopeless says. “It’s just a great idea that even running across multiple series seemed to come and go too fast. I couldn’t help but wonder what demonic New York would look like if had been allowed to grow and thrive. This story builds straight out of that curiosity. We’re exploring the world of Inferno five years after the X-Men failed to expunge the demon horde.”

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Comic News

Nate powell’s Descender 1 Variant CoverComicBook.com has received and exclu-

sive first look at Nate Powell’s variant cover for Descender #1, the first issue of the new series from Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen.Powell is known for his graphic novels

Swallow Me Whole and Any Empire, and for drawing Congressman John Lewis’ ac-count of the civil rights movement in March.Lemire and Nguyen’s Descender, an-

nounced at the most recent Image Expo, follows a young android trying to make his way in a universe where all androids have been outlawed, with a bounty placed on their heads.

The extra-sized Descender #1 goes on sale March March 4. The final day to pre-order is Monday, February 9 (DIAMOND OR-DER CODE: JAN150567).One young robot’s struggle to stay alive

in a universe where all androids have been outlawed and bounty hunters lurk on every planet. A rip-roaring and heart-felt cosmic odyssey that pits humanity against ma-chine, and world against world, to create a sprawling space opera from the creators of Trillium, Sweet Tooth, and Little Gotham.Extra-sized first issue. 30 story pages for

only $2.99!

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Spider-man, Inhumans, & Captain America Team-Up In Amazing Spider-man Special 1Marvel comics has released a preview

of amazing Spider-Man Special #1, the first chapter of a three-part team up sto-ry featuring Spider-Man, captian ame-

rica, and the inhumans.

Written by Jimmy Kimmel Live writer Jeff Loveness, and drawn by Luca Pizzari, the issue sees New Attilan under siege. So-mething big tries to destroy the Inhumans’ new home, which happens to be in the middle of the Hudson River. Naturally, the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man feels obligated to respond, but how does Sam Wilson become involved?Amazing Spider-Man Special #1 goes on

sale March 11, and the story will continue in Inhumans Special #1 and All-New Cap-tain America Special #1. Check out the pre-view in the gallery below.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN SPECIAL #1Written by JEFF LOVENESSArt by LUCA PIZZARICover by JAMAL CAMPBELLOn-Sale – 03/11/15

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Comic News

DC Comics’s Five most Exciting post-Convergence AnnouncementsWith Dc comics today announcing a

massive new slate of titles set to launch in June following the events of conver-gence, the publisher seems to have re-em-braced the spirit of the new 52 relaunch.

There’s a pile of books featuring charac-ters who hadn’t been published regularly for years, some titles featuring new characters or legacy characters, and much more genre diversity than they’ve had in the last couple of years, as the titles had drifted back to a pre-New 52 status quo of being almost ex-clusively traditional superhero books.

So what are we looking forward to the

most? Read on...!

BatMan BeyonDIt’s no secret I’m a fan of Dan Jurgens, but

in particular I’ve always felt his Batman has always been underrated. One of the only corners of the DC Universe where Jurgens hasn’t spent a lot of time over the years, the veteran writer/artist will head to Gotham in a big way come June with both Batman Beyond and Bat-Mite.You can see some of his work on Batman

Beyond in The New 52: Futures End, but even beyond that, just having a DC Uni-verse-set Beyond title is worth getting ex-cited about in general.

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Obviously we don’t yet know whether we’ll get a Batman Beyond set in his “proper” ti-meline or whether he’ll be stuck, either in the past or on Telos, where Convergence takes place. With a little luck, if he can’t go home and keep his traditional supporting cast, he’ll at least get to keep Futures End Plastique, with whom he’s had a really inte-resting and believable relationship.

Black canaryOf all of the characters who seem poised to

get a reinvention out of this, Black Canary may be the one who will benefit the most.

With a high-profile story arc on TV’s Ar-row this season and no solo series in years, just the fact that there is a Black Canary #1 is exciting and overdue. More than that, though, we get a cover that’s less cheese-cake-y than anyone could have predicted from a title featuring this character, and a creative team with a proven track record on stuff like this.Certainly the musical motif on this first co-

ver is curious, and it sends off some little alarms that maybe this will be a little too

inspired by Spider-Gwen...but given Flet-cher’s recent history it doesn’t seem so un-likely he came to that honestly, and without

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Comic News

knowing what it’s about, it’s hard to pass judgment too quickly.

oMega MenOne of the titles we’ve been saying could

have been a great fit for the New 52 basical-ly ever since the relaunch happened, Ome-ga Men is of course perfectly timed to take some cues from another Marvel hit -- Guar-dians of the Galaxy. With Tom King behind the book, and his

relatively paltry comics resume, it’s hard to knwo just what could be coming from this title...and that’s a huge plus. Most fans know very little about the Ome-

ga Men to begin with, and so that curiosity can serve the title well in terms of making some noise in the run-up to the release. Meanwhile, it gives DC a non-Green Lan-

tern space title, which is something they’re sorely missing.

Section 8There is no part of me that will ever be un-

happy when Ennis and McCrea come back to the world they built in Hitman.

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Section 8 is a legitimate contender to take Quantum & Woody’s title as the world’s worst superhero team, and while it feels oddly out-of-place to have such a bizarre, niche title launched along with more than twenty books as part of a big, event-driven mini-relaunch, we’lll take what we can get.

inSiDe Dc’S Magical UniverSeWhile Constantine has been rebranded

to be more comics friendly -- perhaps an acknowledgment by the publisher that the future looks bleak for Matt Ryan’s televi-

sion iteration -- that was just the tip of the iceberg, really, as we got James Tynion’s Dark Universe and titles for Doctor Fate and whatever Mystic U is (we’re assuming that’s got to do with Frankenstein, Amethyst or other magical characters coming out of Futures End and Convergence).

it’s not one title, but it’s exciting in its own way, and reflects the commitment to genre diversity that Dc seems to be culti-vating in this realignment.

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The Flash Legacy

Text by Kelson Vibber

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Flash 1: Jay Garrick (1940–1951)Flash 2: Barry Allen (1956–1986, 2010-)Flash 3: Wally West (1986–2008)Kid Flash: Bart Allen (2006–2007)

The Flash Legacy

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The Flash’s powersthe key ability all Flashes share is

speed: running fast, thinking fast, kicking and punching fast. they can create whirlwinds with their arms or drill through the ground. they can move back and forth so quickly they become invisible. they can run up the side of a building faster than the pull of gravity, or across water before their feet have time to break the surface. Most of them have complete control over their molecules, and can vibrate through so-lid objects. the third Flash, Wally West, can lend speed to moving objects or steal it from them, slowing them to a stop.

The second Flash, Barry Allen, learned how to travel through time using his control over his molecular vibrations. On his own it was hit-and-miss, so he built the “cosmic treadmill” to help pinpoint destinations. By running on the treadmill, any Flash can set up the right vibrations to travel through time. Wally West is the only Flash (so far) to master time travel without the treadmill, though he avoids it whenever possible.The Flash Legacy

Four heroes have called themselves the

Flash over the years.* The first, Jay Gar-rick, fought crime in Keystone City during the 1940s. The second, Barry Allen, pro-tected Central City 10–20 years ago and died during Crisis on Infinite Earths. The third Flash, Wally West, started his solo career in New York City before moving to Keystone. He and his family vanished during Infinite Crisis, and Bart Allen took over while he was gone. Since Barry Allen returned, Jay, Barry and Wally are all ac-tive as “The Flash,” and the comic book has focused on Barry.

*Actually, there are a whole lot of them, if you bring in future and alternate uni-verse stories.

FlaSh iJay Garrick is a scientist. In his colle-

ge years, a lab accident left him exposed to “heavy water” fumes overnight, and he woke up with super-speed. He fought crime in Keystone City, often with the help of his girlfriend Joan, and was a char-ter member of the Justice Society of Ame-rica (JSA). He retired in the early 1950s and married Joan, but would come out of retirement when the need arose. Kept

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(relatively) young by his powers, he now works with the modern Justice Society.

FlaSh iiBarry Allen was a police scientist in Cen-

tral City, across the river from Keystone. Working late one night, he was struck by lightning and splashed with chemicals, giving him super-speed. As the Flash, he was a contemporary of Superman and Bat-man, and a founding member of the Justice League of America (JLA). A year or two into his career, Barry married reporter Iris West. Iris was eventually believed killed by Professor Zoom, but she survived in the 30th Century. The Flash later killed Zoom accidentally, leading to a lengthy murder trial and Barry being reunited with his wife in the distant future. Just a month later, Barry died in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, sacrificing his life to save the uni-verse.

Barry Allen was brought back to life by the resurrected Reverse Flash, and has returned to his old life with Iris in Cen-tral City. His missing years have been ex-plained as time spent in the Witness Pro-tection Program.

FlaSh iii (Previously Kid Flash I)Wally West grew up in a small Nebraska

town, and was a huge fan of the Flash. One day, visiting his aunt Iris, he got a chance to meet his idol. In a freak acci-dent, Barry’s origin repeated itself, and Wally became his teen-aged sidekick, Kid Flash. Wally joined with other sidekicks to form the original Teen Titans, and has

been a hero his entire adult life. After Barry’s death, he took on the role of the Flash, first in New York, then in Keystone City. After running through a series of gir-lfriends, he finally married reporter Linda Park. Wally worked as a mechanic for the Keystone City Police Department until he, Linda, and their infant twins disappeared

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in Infinite Crisis.They reappeared over a year later. Their

children, Iris and Jai, had developed powers of their own, which accelerated their growth to the physical ages of 10 and 8.

kiD FlaSh ii (Briefly Flash IV)Bart Allen, Barry’s grandson, was born

in the 30th Century with a hyper-accele-rated metabolism. He grew up in a vir-tual reality adjusted to match his sense of time, giving him no sense of danger. His grandmother eventually brought him to our present in hopes that Wally would know how to cure him, and his system was shocked to a normal growth rate in early adolescence. At first he took on the name Impulse, and lived with Max Mercury as his guardian and mentor, but since Max’s disappearance, he has lived with Jay and Joan Garrick. A founding member of Young Justice, Bart went on to join the Teen Titans and changed his name to Kid

Flash.Bart had a brief career as the fourth

Flash after he was artificially aged du-ring Infinite Crisis. The Rogues killed him, and he was brought back to life as a teenager by the legion of Super-heroes.

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GoLDEN AGE oRIGINSIn 1940, writer Gardner Fox (1911–

1986) and artist Harry Lampert (1916–2004) created the Flash for All-Ameri-can comics, which published under the Dc comics label. With powers and cos-

tume inspired by the greek/roman god Mercury, Jay garrick made his debut in Flash comics #1. edited by Sheldon Mayer (1917–1991), the series featured the Flash, hawkman, and a rotating cast of other heroes.

In the early years of super-hero comics, filled with multi-powered Superman clones or multi-gadgeted Batman clones, the Flash was “the first specialty super-he-ro.” It might be hard to relate to someone

who could fly, but just about everyone knew what it was like to run, and could imagine running like the wind. The Flash proved so popular he gained a series of his own, All-Flash Quarterly in 1941 (soon shortened to just All-Flash), and a regular spot in Comic Cavalcade in 1942.

criminals and comediansAt first the Flash battled ordinary crimi-

nals: racketeers, kidnappers, or thieves. Occasionally he would match wits with a mad scientist (or, more likely, ordina-ry crooks who had made of with an in-vention). It took nearly three years for his first super-powered enemy, the Shade, to appear in Flash #33 (1942). Even then, recurring villains were rare until late in the decade, when the Fiddler and Thinker racked up four return appearances each. (The Shade himself didn’t return until 1961, well into the Silver Age!)The book was often “comic” in more

ways than one. It would use slapstick hu-mor and puns, and the Flash acquired a trio of comedic sidekicks, the Three Di-mwits. Their stories were cartoony and focused as much on the comedy as the adventure.

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the Sincerest Form of FlatteryThe speedster quickly became an ar-

chetype, and imitators were soon racing through other publications. Quality Co-mics introduced Quicksilver later that year. DC added a second speedster—one

that they owned outright—in 1941: John-ny Quick. And with all the good names taken, the future Marvel Comics created the Whizzer.

Interestingly, DC now owns all the Gol-den-Age speedsters but the Whizzer. A

1945 feud[1] between DC and All-Ame-rican ended when DC bought out the en-tire line. After Quality Comics went out of business in 1956, DC bought their line-up. The trademark on Quicksilver lapsed, though, and Marvel introduced their own

super-speed mutant with the name in 1964. When Mark Waid re-introduced the original in 1993, he renamed the character Max Mercury. The Whizzer, meanwhile, took a circuitous route back to the source, as Marvel reused the name when creating their JLA stand-ins, the Squadron Supre-me.Fading Awayinterest in comic books dropped off by

the end of the decade. (Unless you count crusades against comics by people who blamed them for juvenile delinquen-cy.) nearly all super-heroes faded from view during the early 1950s, only the “big three”—Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman—surviving intact. all-Flash closed down in 1948, the Flash lost his space in comic cavalcade, and Flash Comics finished up with #104 in 1949.

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The Flash I - Golden Age: Jay Garrickreal name: Jason Peter “Jay” Garrickknown relatives: Joan Williams Garrick (wife), Major Arthur Williams (father-in-law, deceased?), unnamed adopted son (deceased)Group Affiliation: Justice Society of America (founding member)Past Group Affiliation: All-Star Squadronoccupation: Research Scientist, part-time Director of Garrick LaboratoriesBase of operations: Keystone City, Kansas

hair: Brown (white at temples)eyes: BlueFirst appearance: Flash Comics #1 (January 1940)created By: Gardner Fox and Harry Lampertorigin: 1938identity: Secret until late in Barry Al-len’s career, now public knowledge (Flash Spectacular 1978).Flashes: Next (Barry Allen)See also: Earth-2

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College student Jay Garrick was investi-gating an experimental form of heavy wa-ter, when an accident released hazardous fumes that rendered him unconscious. Af-ter inhaling the fumes all night, he awoke in the hospital to discover he could move and react at superhuman speed. He be-came a crimefighter and a scientist in Keystone City—two roles that intersected surprisingly often, as his civilian life and research would often lead him into adven-tures as the Flash.

The Flash was a founding member of the Justice Society of America and fought in World War II as part of the All-Star Squa-dron. Eventually he retired from super-he-roics and married his long-time sweetheart Joan Williams. (In recent years, Jay has realized that this decision kept him from brushing up against the speed force.) Early in their marriage, Jay and Joan adopted a baby who subsequently died of pneumo-nia. For decades Jay refused to talk about him, even to Joan or his teammates, but he has taken strongly to the role of mentor to younger generations of heroes. (Note: Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1 states that Jay and Joan married much earlier, within months of him becoming the Flash.)Retirement

The Garricks spent several years frozen when the Thinker, Fiddler, and Shade pulled Keystone City out of phase with the rest of the world, keeping the populace in a sleepwalking-like state. The second Flash, Barry Allen, discovered the forgotten city and awakened Jay, and the two heroes res-cued the city together. While Jay was hap-py to let his successor take care of the twin cities, he would come out of retirement from time to time to work with Barry and his sidekick, Kid Flash...and of course the JSA. It was during this time that Jay Gar-rick publicly revealed his identity (Flash Spectacular 1978).

Shortly after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Flash and most of the JSA were trap-

ped in limbo. Freed years later, they briefly re-formed the team. Old age was catching up on many of them, though. Many of the JSA heroes (and fortunately their spouses as well) had been kept relatively young by various spells they had encountered on their adventures. These were subsequently removed by the villain Extant. Jay had an extra advantage, though: the speed force itself has kept him young. In his mid-eigh-ties, Jay is physically in his late forties.

Even without super-heroics, Jay stayed extraordinarily active. He continued to run Garrick Laboratories until it was bought out—at three times market value—by WayneTech, after which he stayed on as a part-time director. He’s picked up do-zens of languages over the years, and reads nearly every magazine, newspaper, or journal on the planet.Elder Statesman

Over the next few years, Jay would oc-casionally help out the third Flash, Wally West, when he faced threats too big for one hero to handle. He mainly took to the role of elder statesman among super-heroes. Eventually a new JSA was formed with a mix of first- and second-generation heroes, and Jay decided to come completely out of retirement.

A year or two ago, Jay and Joan tem-porarily relocated to Denver in order to better treat Joan’s leukemia. While there, they took in Bart Allen (Impulse, later Kid Flash). With Joan’s cancer in remission, the Garricks and their young charge re-turned to Keystone.Crisis

Infinite Crisis left Jay as the only re-maining Flash†. He continued to protect Keystone City, powered by a metagene, but with the speed force inaccessible, he was limited to Mach 1 (Infinite Crisis #7, 2006). After it returned, he was back up to full speed (Justice Society of America v.3 #8, 2007).

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The Flash II- Silver Age: Barry Allenreal name: Bartholomew Henry “Barry” Allenother aliases: The Scarlet Speedster,

the Fastest Man Alive, the Monarch of Motion, the Sultan of Speedknown relatives: Henry and Nora (pa-

rents), Malcolm Thawne (twin), Iris West Allen (wife), Wally West (nephew), Don and Dawn Allen (son and daughter), Bart Allen (grandson), Jenni Ognats (grand-daughter)Group Affiliation: Justice League of

America (founding member)Base of operations: Central City, Mis-

sourihometown: Fallville, Iowaoccupation: Police scientisthair: Blondeeyes: BlueFirst appearance: Showcase #4[2],

September–October, 1956origin: 10–15 years ago (1 year before

Wally)identity: Secret during his lifetime. Pu-

blic knowledge after death, but erased

from memories and records late in Wally West’s career (Flash v.2 #200, 2003).Death: Saving the universe from the An-

ti-Monitor (Crisis on Infinite Earths #8, November 1985)resurrection: Brought back by the Re-

verse-Flash (DC Universe #0, 2008; Final Crisis #2, 2008; Flash: Rebirth #4, 2009)See Also: Earth-1, Where’s Barry?, The

Lost Days of Barry AllenFlashes: Previous (Jay Garrick) Next

(Wally West)

Police scientist Barry Allen was struck by lightning in his lab one night and spla-shed with chemicals from a nearby cabi-net. He found he could run at super-speed. Inspired by Jay Garrick, Allen adopted the identity of the Flash, quickly becoming a celebrated hero.childhood

Barry Allen grew up in the small farm community of Fallville, Iowa, son of Dr. Henry Allen. A fan of comic books from

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a young age, he often worked tales of the original Flash[3] into games with his childhood sweetheart, the future actress Daphne Dean. He turned his methodical attention to detail and his fascination with science into a career as a police scientist, settling in Central City, Missouri.At least, that’s what originally happened.

The Reverse Flash traveled back in time to take pre-emptive revenge on Barry Allen before he ever became a hero. He burned down the Allens’ house, so they moved to Central City while Barry was still a child. Then he murdered Barry’s mother Nora, and framed his father. Henry Allen was convicted, and eventually died in prison. Barry pursued a career in criminal justice in hopes that he could learn who had real-ly destroyed their family, and why.

thUnDerStrUckOne night, working late, Barry stood in

front of a shelf of chemicals near the win-dow. A lightning bolt struck the window, electrifying Barry and spraying him with

charged chemicals. Miraculously, instead of being horribly burned, the scientist found he could move at super-speed.As he gained mastery over his powers,

he discovered that he had complete control over his molecules. In practice this meant not only running fast, but vibrating through solid objects, creating whirlwinds

with his hands, carrying out tasks in moments that would take most people hours, days, or longer.Barry used his extraordinary

abilities to take his quest for jus-tice outside the lab, protecting the city from a new generation of costumed criminals. He took the name of his childhood hero, and patrolled the streets as the Flash. A grateful city even dedicated a museum in his honor.

teaM MeMBerShipBarry Allen was a founding

member of the Justice League of America, and remained on the team up through the time of his trial (1960–1985).

He also became a mentor to a younger hero, when his girlfriend Iris’ nephew Wally West fell vic-tim to the exact same accident that gave Barry his powers (Flash

v.1 #110, 1959). It has since been specu-lated that Barry unconsciously caused the accident to occur through his link to the Speed Force.

coSMic travelEarly in his career, Barry learned that he

could travel through time by setting up specific molecular vibrations. By halting these vibrations, he could return to his home era. To help with precision, he built what he called the Cosmic Treadmill.

In the pre-Crisis Multiverse, Barry dis-covered the existence of parallel worlds when he accidentally found a link between the Central City Community Center stage

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on Earth-One and a road outside Keystone City on Earth-Two. He met Jay Garrick, and the two Flashes teamed up to foil a series of robberies (Flash v.1 #123, 1961). (In the combined world that resulted from the Crisis on Infinite Earths, this occurred somewhat differently.) Barry would later visit a number of realities, including Ear-th-Prime (Flash v.1 #179)

relationShipSActress Daphne Dean grew up in Fallville

with Barry. They were close friends as children, and dated in high school, but drif-ted apart. They remained friends, though a mutual attraction would occasionally sur-face.Reporter Iris West, whom Barry met in

Central City, was the love of his life. When Barry became the Flash, he struggled with keeping the fact secret from Iris, even af-ter they were married (Flash v.1 #165). He finally told her on their first anniversary, only to learn that she had known since their wedding night: he talked in his sleep, re-vealing the secret. From then on, Iris be-

came the Flash’s secret ally.The Reverse-Flash, who harbored an ob-

session over replacing Barry, developed a fixation on Iris. Eventually, he demanded that she renounce her husband for him. She refused, and Zoom killed her (Flash v.1 #275). Barry battled Zoom through time, eventually leaving him stranded in a time machine with the controls jammed.

Barry grieved, then moved on. He began dating his new neighbor, Fiona Webb, eventually rushing into marriage...only to have the wedding interrupted when the Reverse Flash escaped. Zoom wanted a rematch, threatened to kill the Flash’s wife—again—and the two battled in a race around the world. As Zoom prepared to kill Fiona, Barry grabbed him in a chokehold, accidentally snapping his neck and killing him (Flash #323–324, 1983).Final Days: Trial and Time

Zoom’s death led to a lengthy murder trial. The Flash gave up his life as Barry Allen, throwing himself into protecting

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the city and preparing his defense. Ulti-mately, he was acquitted...and reunited with Iris, who wasn’t dead after all (Flash #340–350, 1984–1985).

They relocated to the 30th Century, the era in which Iris had been born. They had only a short time together in the future of 2957, but it was enough time for Iris to conceive twins who would inherit their father’s speed.[4] Barry also made seve-ral trips through time to visit his home era (see The Lost Days of Barry Allen).

Everything came to an end in the Cri-sis, when Barry was abducted by the An-ti-Monitor. Held for days, tortured, Barry conserved his strength until he could escape. The Anti-Monitor had been pre-paring an immense cannon, one which would destroy the few remaining uni-verses left. A hero to the end, the Flash set out to destroy the cannon. In outracing the tachyon at the cannon’s heart, Barry broke all limits of speed and became one with the other side of light. (Crisis on Infi-nite Earths, 1985–1986. See also Where’s Barry?)

retUrnBarry Allen found himself alive again,

unsure how or why he had been given a second chance, as minions of Darkseid began taking over the Earth (hints in DC Universe #0, on-panel in Final Crisis #2; 2008). He later learned that he had been brought back by his arch-enemy, the Re-verse Flash, in order to destroy his repu-tation as a hero — and that Zoom had been tormenting him throughout his past (Flash: Rebirth, 2009–2010).

Barry has returned to his old life with iris in central city, explaining his years of absence as having been in the Wit-ness protection program. he has also returned to his old job—both of them: the one in the central city crime lab and the one out on the streets, wearing the red suit.

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The Flash III - Wally Westreal name: Wallace Rudolph “Wally” Westother aliases: Kid Flash, the Scarlet

Speedster, the Fastest Man Aliveknown relatives: Linda Park (wife),

Rudolph and Mary West (parents), Iris West Allen (aunt), Barry Allen (uncle), Ira West (grandfather), Charlotte West (aunt), Edgar Rhodes (uncle), Inez Rhodes (cou-sin), Don and Dawn Allen (cousins), Bart Allen (cousin), Jenni Ognats (cousin), Iris (daughter), Jai (son)Past Group Affiliations: Titans (foun-

ding member), Justice LeagueBase of operations: Keystone City, Kansashometown: Blue Valley, Nebraskapast occupation: Mechanic for the KCPDhair: Redeyes: Green*First appearance: (as Kid Flash) Flash

(first series) #110, December 1959–Janua-ry 1960; (as Flash) Crisis on Infinite Earths #12, March 1986origin: 10–15 years ago (1 year after

Barry)identity: Secret during career as Kid

Flash. Public knowledge during most of his solo career. Secret again, erased from memories and records (Flash v.2 #200, 2003).Disappearance: Vanished in Infinite Crisis #4 (2006)reappearance: Justice League of America #10 & All-Flash #1 (2007)Flashes: Previous (Barry Allen) Next (Dark Flash)

Splattered with lightning-charged chemi-cals as a pre-teen, Wally West gained su-per-speed and became the sidekick to the second Flash, eventually succeeding him. Powered by the extradimensional Speed Force, he can not only move at near-lights-peed, but can transfer speed to and from others. He used to be able to vibrate

through solid objects, but now doing so causes them to explode. Wally is the only speedster who can travel through time pre-cisely without using external calibration (such as the Cosmic Treadmill).

For most of his solo career, his identity was known to the public. Actions by the Spectre have caused the world to forget (Ignition).

DetaileD hiStoryJunior high school student Wally West,

president of Blue Valley, Nebraska’s Flash Fan Club, was visiting his aunt Iris in Cen-tral City and her boyfriend Barry Allen. Barry offered to introduce Wally to the Flash—in costume, he explained to Wally the accident which gave him his powers, when suddenly it reoccurred, granting Wally the same abilities! Barry took him into his confidence, and made him his sidekick, Kid Flash. Wally was a founding member of the Teen Titans.Unfortunately, the accident had a slight-

ly different effect on Wally’s adolescent

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body. He developed a disease which would kill him if he used his speed. A blast of en-ergy during the Crisis on Infinite Earths—the same war in which Barry sacrificed his life—cured Wally, but left him with a top speed roughly that of sound.In honor of his mentor, Wally took the

name and costume of the Flash. He went through a difficult period of emotional ins-tability during which he used his powers irresponsibly, developed a reputation as a womanizer, and finally sought psychia-tric help, As he matured—much of which he credits to his now-longstanding rela-tionship with reporter Linda Park—and

learned to fulfill his responsibility, Wally slowly developed confidence and regained his earlier speed.Finally breaking through his mental

block of replacing Barry Allen, he achie-ved full speed, only to find himself chan-ging into energy. In the midst of a battle for Keystone, he sacrificed his life and his humanity to save Linda—and became the only person known to return from the other side of the speed barrier. Wally now has a direct connection to the speed force, and subconscious knowledge of new ways to use it, including the ability to lend speed to other objects and people (Terminal Velo-

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city and aftermath: Flash #95–101, 1994–1995).Wally now wears a costume made of

concentrated speed force energy. Unable to wait for both broken legs to heal and inspired by a then-recent Justice League case, he gained enough control over the speed force to create a costume which would support him and enable him to run despite his injury (Flash #131, 1997).Wally and Linda finally married, but

Linda was kidnapped from the wedding by Abra Kadabra and retroactively erased from history (Flash #142, 1998). Wally’s sacrifice at the end of “Chain Lightning,” entering the Speed Force to defeat Cobalt Blue, appeared final. He was, in fact, drawn back into reality when Linda escaped her prison outside of time. Trapped alongside her in an alternate reality, battling first a blue-eyed version of himself driven over the edge by his own Linda’s death at the hands of Kobra, then Kadabra himself, he and Linda searched endless alternate rea-lities before finally returning to their own and tricking Kadabra into reversing his spell (Flash #153–158, 1999). Restored to their own world at last, they immediately picked up where they left off, holding the wedding that afternoon.

Several months into Linda’s first pregnan-cy, Zoom attacked Linda to “teach” Wally about tragedy first-hand. Linda survived, but the unborn twins did not. In his grief, Wally made a deal with the Spectre to make the world forget who he was, hoping that Wally and Linda would be safe from the Flash’s enemies. What the Spectre did not tell him was that he and Linda would forget as well.Wally and Linda have since regained

their memories, though it took time for them to pick up the pieces of their their life and marriage. Miraculously, a time-travel-ling rematch with Zoom created a “fissure in time” that restored Linda’s pregnancy, just in time for her to give birth to twins Iris and Jai.

criSiSWhen Wally, Jay and Bart attempted to

trap the murderous Superboy-Prime in the speed force, he found himself being pulled out of this reality once more, though it did not seem to be the speed force pulling him. He appeared to Linda to say goodbye, but she insisted on going along with him. She, Wally, and the twins (who probably carry super-speed in their genes) all vanished to-gether (Infinite Crisis #4, 2006).It was previously thought that they had

traveled, along with the other speedsters and Superboy, were taken to an alternate Earth (Flash: TFMA #6, 2007). As it turns out, the West family spent roughly a year on an alien world that had a history with Flashes. (Flash v.2 #231, 2007) Little is known of their life there.Wally, Linda and the twins returned when

seven members of the future team, the Le-gion of Super-Heroes, traveled back in time to resurrect someone using 31st-Cen-tury technology called lightning rods. The Legion appears to have been recovering someone else, but Wally was “riding the lightning,” and brought his entire family back (Justice League of America #10 & All-Flash #1, 2007).

teaM MeMBerShipAs Kid Flash, Wally West was a foun-

ding member of the original Teen Titans. He stayed through three incarnations of the team, before quitting when he retired as Kid Flash (1966–1984).When Wally took over as the Flash,

he worked briefly with the Titans again (1986–1987), but then left to pursue his solo career. He was later invited to join Justice League International, and was a founding member of its European branch (1989–1994). When the team lost its United Nations sponsorship, Wally moved to the Justice League of America, and was a member until he disappeared in Infinite Crisis (1994–2006).During his tenure in the JLA, Wally also

joined two other teams: another stint in the Titans (1999–2000), and a tour in Justice

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League Elite (2004–2005).Within minutes of Wally’s return, Hal

Jordan extended an offer of membership in the newly-reformed Justice League of America.

the FUtUreThere are conflicting accounts on Wally’s

future.Several years ago, Iris wrote in The Life

Story of the Flash that she would help him through “an unexpected, tumultuous mar-riage, through the marvel of his daughter,

and through the tragedy of his son.” Many speedsters, including Jay Garrick, met Wally’s daughter Iris West II while batt-ling the legacy of Cobalt Blue, implying

a degree of reality to this future, in which Wally is still alive when Iris is in her late teens/early twenties.Of course one could hardly call his mar-

riage to Linda unexpected, except perhaps the timing of the actual wedding, and Iris herself has said that some things she thought she knew turned out to be wrong. Although the aftermath of Linda’s mis-carriage looks like it could fit the “tumul-tuous” bill.In some accounts of Iris II’s life Wally

has essentially given up his civilian life to patrol Keystone continuously at hypers-peed (The Kingdom, 1998; Flash 80-Page

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Giant #2, 1999). In others he has given up his humanity to the point where he is no longer confined to one plane of existence (Kingdom Come, 1996).Still another account, gleaned from a

garbled record uncovered in the 30th Cen-tury, holds that Wally was “evolved” by the Speed Force into something beyond human, focusing his efforts no longer on crime but on problems beyond human

comprehension. According to this record, he regained his humanity just as he was defeated by the gorilla “Mega-Rogue” and launched out of time and space (Flash 80-Page Giant #2: “A Flash of Hope,” 1999). However, it is unclear to what extent the record was interpreted correctly. It may have even been a garbled record of Wal-ter’s battles against Gorilla City and the Replicant.

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Kid Flash II - Bart Allenreal name: Bartholomew “Bart” Allen IIOther Aliases Impulse, Flashknown relatives: Barry Allen (grand-

father), Iris West Allen (grandmother), Don Allen (father), Meloni Thawne (mo-ther), President Thawne (grandfather), Dawn Allen (aunt), Jenni Ognats (cousin), Wally West (cousin), Thaddeus Thawne (clone), Owen Mercer (half-brother), Max Crandall (guardian)Base of operations: Los Angeles, Cali-

fornia (previously Manchester, Alabama, briefly Denver, Colorado, then Keystone City, Kansas)

occupation: Police traineePast Group Affiliations: Young Justice,

New Titans, Teen Titanshair: Browneyes: YellowFirst appearance: (as Impulse) Flash

v.2 #91 (June 1994)* (as Kid Flash) Teen Titans v.3 #4 (December 2003)created by: Mark Waid & Mike Wierin-

goorigin: 2980 (born 2980)identity: Secret until just before his deathDeath: Killed by the Rogues (Flash: The

Fastest Man Alive #13, 2007)

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Resurrection: Restored by the Legion of Super-Heroes in Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds (2008–2009)See also: The Flash on SmallvilleFlashes: Previous (Walter West)

Grandson of Barry Allen, the second Flash, Bart Allen has been forced to grow up fast—literally. He initially became the teen hero Impulse, mentored by Max Mercury. He was later taken in by the ori-ginal Flash, Jay Garrick and his wife Joan. Not long after, Bart took on the costume of Kid Flash, spending time with the Teen Titans. Bart disappeared during Infinite Crisis and reappeared four years older, taking up the mantle of the Flash until he was killed by the Rogues. Restored to life by the Legion of Super-Heroes, Bart is once again the fastest teen alive.

DetaileD hiStory

iMpUlSeBart inherited super-speed from his

grandfather, Barry Allen, but his hype-raccelerated metabolism resulted in an accelerated growth rate. To keep him from going insane, scientists placed him in a virtual reality that kept pace with his own scale of time. Eventually it became clear that their efforts were not helping, so Bart’s grandmother Iris took him to the 20th Century to consult her nephew, Wal-ly West. Wally knew from experience the practicalities of super-speed in the field, unlike the scientists who had only ob-served it in the laboratory. Wally forced Bart into an extreme burst of speed that shocked his system into normalcy—he retained his speed, but his accelerated

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growth rate dropped to normal.Because of Bart’s childhood in VR, he had

no concept of danger and rarely thought ahead, acting completely on impulse. This earned him his nickname (Batman called it a “warning”—see Who Named Impulse?). Wally wasn’t suited to be a mentor, so Max Mercury became Bart’s guardian and trai-ner. They moved to Manchester, Alabama,

where bart attended middle school, made friends, and (of course) fought super-cri-minals as Impulse.Bart is also something of a time anomaly.

Though his parents only met in post-Zero Hour continuity, he arrived in the present day before the event hit. He has since dis-played immunity to time alterations; he weathered Extant’s manipulations of the timeline (Impulse: Bart Saves the Uni-verse, 1999) and remembered Linda Park even after her disappearance (Impulse #1,000,000, 1998 & Flash #152, 1999). Even worse, the 31st century he knows no longer exists. (Teen Titans/Legion Spe-cial, 2004).

tiMe ScoUtSDuring a trip to the 31st Century (Im-

pulse #75, 2001; see Dark Tomorrow), Bart was blasted by an experimental hy-per-ray intended to give ordinary people

super-speed. Instead it gave him the abi-lity to create “scouts,”** energy-like ava-tars of himself which he could then send through the timestream, then absorb their memories when they returned. After one of his scouts was killed on Apokolips (Im-pulse #77) and the psychic feedback sent him into shock, he was extremely reluctant to use his new power.Bart has used it only twice since then:

once, unwillingly, when the genie Bedlam used his scouts to create a “World Without Young Justice” (Young Justice #44–45, Impulse #85, etc., 2002), and later to res-cue his mother and his friend Carol from the 63rd Century. In light of later events, it is extremely likely that Bart no longer has this ability.

kiD FlaShMax disappeared, and Bart moved to

Keystone City to live with Jay and Joan Garrick. After a series of traumas—Ca-rol’s and Max’s disappearances, Bart’s near-death experience on Apokolips, the deaths of Lilith and Troia and dissolution of the Titans and Young Justice, and final-ly being shot in the knee by Deathstroke—Bart decided to reinvent himself. He read every book in the San Francisco public library, and wove together a new costume, calling himself not Impulse, but Kid Flash (Teen Titans #1–5, 2003).

criSiSWhen Bart, Wally and Jay attempted to

trap the murderous Superboy-Prime in the Speed Force, Bart found himself facing a monster alone. Jay fell behind, and Wal-ly was pulled out of this reality. Bart ma-naged to force Superboy-Prime as far as the edge of the speed force, at which point the heroes trapped there—Barry, Max, and Johnny Quick—took over, pulling Super-boy inside.

The Flashes held Superboy imprisoned in the speed force for years until he escaped. Bart followed, and spent four years in an alternate world. When Superboy escaped,

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Bart pursued, the time difference between dimensions bringing in back only hours or days after he left. To the rest of the world, he aged four years in an eyeblink (Infinite Crisis, 2006). After the battle, he claimed he had used up the last of his speed, leaving him powerless.

FlaSh: one year laterSuddenly older than his friends, unable

to remember his missing years, and har-boring a secret—that the speed force was still around, and threatened to overwhelm him—Bart set about creating a normal, mundane life for himself. He got a job as a factory worker at Keystone Motors and tried to leave super-heroics behind him...but it’s difficult to walk away from that kind of life, no matter how fast you run.

When his roommate gained super-powers

and became the Griffin, Bart was forced to accept his legacy. He discovered that he had absorbed the speed force, and began learning how to control the power. Fol-lowing in the footsteps of his cousin and grandfather, Bart Allen became the Flash. Not long after defeating the Griffin, the latest Flash moved to Los Angeles to start a new chapter in his life. As a civilian, Bart began training at the Los Angeles Police Academy, focusing on forensics.Bart was tragically killed while battling

the Rogues and Inertia. His clone had cut him off from the speed force, and several of the Rogues—particularly Captain Cold, Heat Wave and Weather Wizard—blasted him (Flash: TFMA #13, 2007). A public funeral service was held at a Keystone City stadium. The city shut down for the day. Jay Garrick, Cyborg, Robin and Wonder Girl spoke, and the Titans played a farewell video Bart had recorded after he was shot (Countdown #43, 2007).

The 31st Century Legion of Super-He-roes sent a team back in time to collect Bart’s essence in a set of “lightning rods” later using them, along with multiple

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lightning-powered heroes and Bart’s cou-sin XS on a cosmic treadmill to resurrect him. He returned once again a teenager, wearing his Kid Flash costume (Final Cri-sis: Legion of Three Worlds #3, 2009).

relationShipSBecause of his accelerated growth and

virtual-reality upbringing, Bart remained childlike when he first arrived in the pre-sent. While with the New Titans he briefly had a crush on Rose Wilson (Deathstroke’s daughter, who later became the Ravager), but it never went anywhere. During his time in Manchester he did eventually start a relationship with his best friend, Carol Bucklen, but forces beyond their control interrupted that before it really got started. Alternate futures have shown him roman-tically involved with both women: Carol in “Dark Tomorrow,” and Rose in “Titans Tomorrow.”

Bart’s first adult relationship was a brief fling with Valerie Perez, a former intern at STAR Labs. After a matter of weeks, she broke it off.

teaM MeMBerShipSAs Impulse, Bart joined the New Titans

when the team was sponsored by Check-mate (1994–1996). After that team dissol-ved, he went on to be a founding member of Young Justice, staying with that group until it dissolved (1998–2003). He then ac-cepted an invitation to join the new, trai-ning-focused Teen Titans (2003–2006). He changed his name and costume to Kid

Flash while on a mission for this team, and he was a member until he disappeared in Infinite Crisis (2006). Bart did not join any teams during his career as the Flash.alternate FUtUreSIt has long been clear that Bart would suc-

ceed Wally as the fourth Flash. Here are glimpses of some other possible futures he could have had.

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Anime/Manga - News

CoVERS oF THE moNTH

mad Love Chase, Volume 5Lady Viita, growing impatient with her

minions constantly failing to retrieve her fiance, convinces the Demon King to take action. The King is forced to summon Tai-ki and Co. back under penalty of death, charged with obstructing the search for the lost Prince.

With demon forces invading school and his friends in danger, yamato must make a decision between his freedom and his friends. Stay tuned for the heart-wrench-ing, pulse-pounding conclusion of Mad love chase!

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ALL YoU NEED IS KILLAs Ron Perlman would gleefully inform you:

“war, war never changes.” Such is the case in Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s 2004 light novel All You Need Is Kill, a sci-fi story about a young solider who continually finds himself fighting the same battle. The solider, Keiji Kiriya, is caught in a perpetual loop trying to stay alive against an enemy he can not beat, and losing; I call this ‘putting children to bed’ syndrome.It is an interesting concept, one that was ap-

parently inspired by save scumming - that is the video game technique of continually sa-ving to beat the game by attrition, and not some liberal plan to preserve the rights of hoo-dlums. Keiji is trapped, doomed to relive his painful experience over and over, but at the same time he is rather blessed as he begins to take a Hugh Grant approach to proceedings; that is bumbling through the situation blindly until success is met, and not getting caught in a tryst with a prostitute.

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Anime/Manga - News

Last: Naruto The movie

the moon is falling, and a pale, sha-dowy villain claims the Hyūga clan are the key to his plans for the world’s des-truction. Hyūga Hinata struggles with her long-held feelings for Uzumaki na-ruto, but his popularity following his role in the Fourth Shinobi World War makes her feel more distant from him than ever before. When a legion of puppet soldiers kid-

nap hinata’s younger sister, hanabi, heir to the Hyūga clan, Hinata, Naru-to, Sakura, Sai and Shikamaru must set off to the moon to rescue her—while the rest of the shinobi world struggles to keep pieces of the moon from oblitera-ting all they hold dear.

SYNopSIS

revieWThe Last -Naruto the Movie- is a lush ninja

fairy tale, an almost perfect incarnation of the Naruto story that’s enraptured so many fans from around the globe for well over a decade. There were almost two and a half years between this movie and the previous Naruto film (instead of the usual one year), and the extra time the production staff al-lowed themselves is apparent in every gor-geous frame.

A lot of your enjoyment of the film will depend on your feelings (if you have any) on Naruto’s love life. Romance has never been an important element in Naruto, but it’s precisely because it got so little focus that the manga’s epilogue was difficult to entirely swallow. The Last -Naruto the Mo-vie-, set two years after the end of the se-ries’ main storyline, effectively fills in the gap and explains how the Naruto we know

who adored Sakura for most of the series becomes the Naruto who’s happily married to Hinata with two children.

Much of the film is romantic, and some-times it relies too heavily on romantic tropes. (Kishimoto himself takes credit for the central role a hand-knit scarf plays, even despite the plethora of anime and manga that make use of the device.) However, it all works. It may be difficult for action-lovers to see oblivious Naruto as a romantic hero for so much of the film—even Naruto him-self is dumbfounded at times—but there’s enough action to balance it out. The movie powerfully conveys airheaded Naruto final-ly understanding his own feelings and the romantic attachment of the girl who’s loved him all along. An embarrassed flinch at the brush of his hand. A sparkle in his eye as he watches her gaze at the dusky sky. The ten-sion between the two is palpable, and ado-

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rably awkward, and they never stray from the painfully shy yet quietly powerful wo-man and the naïve but caring and protective man we’ve known them to be.

The backdrop of this love is something fit for the dusty pages of a tome from The Brothers Grimm. Against the backdrop of a mixture of medieval European décor and that signature Naruto style (medieval Asian with a dash of modern technology), Hina-ta plays the role of a princess swept away by a handsome villain to his castle to be his bride à la Beauty and the Beast. Somehow all of these styles mesh seamlessly into an

elegant castle on the moon that houses a Byronic-type villain who’s a wisp of a man, simultaneously confident and ignorant of how the woman he desires could not easily love him. Naruto is the prince out to rescue his true love, but he does it ninja-style, with Sakura, Sai and Shikamaru providing the perfect commentary along the way.

If the film leaves anything to be desired, it’s the overarching plot and the villain’s motivations. There’s a long-winded expla-nation, but basically, the villain wants to destroy the world because he feels that ninja have abused their power. It’s such a cliche rationale, it’s not only in more films, books, movies and games than you can shake a stick at, it’s even the motivation for Madara in the main series, more or less. (He’d pre-fer to put everyone into an eternal illusion, but the gist is the same.) Not only that, it’s not entirely clear why he desires Hinata so desperately. It may have something to do

with the fact that he needs byakugan eyes to activate his world-destroying statue, but why he isn’t satisfied with taking Hana-bi’s eyeballs and has to instead control and marry Hinata is left unarticulated.

Along with a tired villainous plot, the film fails to properly convey the real sense of

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danger these characters should be feeling until almost the last third of the film. The Kage are aware right from the start that the moon is going to fall to pieces and destroy the world, but Hanabi’s kidnapping seems

more pressing to the audience, and Naruto has his love life to sort out. Yes, Shikamaru keeps an eye on the advance of the moon as everything else unravels, but it never feels like the ticking time bomb it’s supposed to be until the very end.

Sakura, Sai and Shikamaru may seem like a random assortment of secondary charac-ters to include in the rescue mission (other than Sai and Sakura comprising the rest of Team 7), but it actually works marvelously. Sai’s ink birds take the characters to the skies and Sakura’s boundless strength leads her to take on countless enemies at once. When the story is more character-driven, Sakura is there to tell her “brother” Naru-to what an oblivious idiot he is. Sai’s pas-sive-aggressiveness-with-a-smile routine, sorely missed in recent years on the show, brings just the right amount of levity. Shi-kamaru has all the bright ideas and can still manage to complain about everything being a bother.No one’s action sequences even come

close to the spectacles that are Naruto’s bat-tle scenes, unless perhaps you count Kura-ma’s. Naruto’s never been more powerful, and the fluidity of his limbs as he twists and turns and slices through marionettes from the moon makes it clear why he’s the true star of the series. Hinata is regretfully re-

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legated to the damsel in distress role for a fraction of the film, but she willingly as-sumes the role to save those she loves and manages, in her own quiet way, to search for solutions. She also gets a few good ac-tion scenes in when she and Naruto decide to fight side by side.Other important characters pop up for

cameos here and there, and even fan favo-rite character Kakashi doesn’t see much ac-

tion thanks to his new role as Hokage. Still, because the focus is on a handful of charac-ters, the film never feels overloaded, and the climax of the character-driven romance is more impactful.The Last -Naruto the Movie- has art and

animation that’s heads and tails above even the most artfully animated episode of the

TV series, although that’s par for the course with Naruto’s big screen outings. Individual backdrops, particularly those of the moon castle, could be right at home in a Miyazaki film. Effects like flower petals and falling snow add depth to scenes that already pack an emotional punch. The stylish black and white opening looks like a moving story-book.The score, however, leaves a lot to be de-

sired. The film opens with “Greensleeves,” of all things, perhaps because it’s in the public domain and conveys the medieval European tone much of the film relies on. However, it plays over the storybook pro-logue, which is a pastiche of the legend behind the world of Naruto as well as a brief recap of the bulk of the Naruto story-line—none of which has a touch of Europe to it—so it feels out of place. The rest of the music is more in tune with the rousing clas-sic-Japanese-theater style that pervades the TV series, but it fades into the background more often than not.Despite the (awkward) title, the movie is

not actually the final film in the franchise, but it’s the last of an era and a fitting capstone for the series and its fandom.

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Anime/Manga - News

if you’ve read yoshiki tonogai’s other works, Doubt and Judge, you might be forgiven if you think he’s a bit of a one trick pony. Therefore the sight of the rabbit masks on

the cover of his latest offering, Secret, isn’t likely to make you think that he’s doing anything different this time either. But there you’d be wrong – while Secret shares ele-ments of his earlier works, it eschews the locked-room format and hidden identities of those other titles, focusing instead on the idea of trauma, guilt, and what happens when you survive, against all the odds.

The story jumps right in at its most shocking point: a student with his arm in a sling backs a teacher up against the chalkboard, screa-ming at him while his classmates look on in horror. From the student’s words, we know that the teacher has just accused someone in the class of murder.

As the pages progress, we find out that the six students, four boys and two girls, are the lone survivors of a terrible bus accident that killed the rest of their classmates (although one committed suicide after the fact), and that their counselor has just told them that he knows that three of them are murderers. He gives them a week to figure things out before leaving them to spiral into hysteria. Everyone immediately begins to distrust their classmates, setting the stage for mad-ness to force the murderers out of hiding...or for the other three students to prove themselves equally capable of killing.

Midway through the first chapter we be-gin to see flashbacks of the accident’s after-math, including the bloodthirsty reporters who cluster around the school gates hoping to catch one of the survivors, preferably Ri-

ka-chan, a fairly well-known idol who was about to have her big break before a poten-tially disfiguring injury. The media appears unwilling to understand that their constant presence only prolongs the trauma for the kids, which while not a clue per se, is still an interesting detail that we haven’t seen Tonogai use before, although televisions do tend to play a role in his mysteries. This first chapter is nominally from the point of view of Iku, one of the boys, although we don’t really see that until the end of it, when we suddenly have cause to question his relia-bility.

Each chapter is from a different student’s point of view, a conceit which works very well to both cast Doubt and make us (mis-takenly?) trust various players in the game. Chapter two, called “Eyewitness,” is from Odzu’s perspective and marks the occasion when we learn exactly what happened on that bus. At this point I am inclined to think that Odzu is the most trustworthy of the suspects, and his chapter is presented wit-hout damning details about any of the six...although some interesting clues do emerge. The line about the teacher being “comple-tely passed out” in particular seems suspi-cious, and there are a few other details that stand out as perhaps providing information as to why the crash happened. As for Odzu himself, he seems mostly guilt-stricken, an emotion not outwardly shared by his fellow survivors.

The least interesting and explained ele-ment here is Tonogai’s insistence on using the fraying rabbit-head masks once again. They were kind of terrifying in Doubt and at least symbolic in Judge, but using them again in Secret really feels like a stretch. There’s barely an explanation for the mask

Secret GN 1

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being here – it is taken from the stored items used in the deceased class’ haunted house – but it doesn’t feel like a particularly well-used item within the story. Secret’s mystery is strong enough to stand on its own without a gimmicky object like the mask, and Tono-gai is a strong enough artist that he doesn’t need to rely on it to give us a creepy carni-val feeling.

On the whole, however, Secret is the stron-gest of Tonogai’s works, at least in its first volume. The mystery is interesting, the par-

tial memories we’ve seen of the past – from different perspectives, which is important – give us hints as to what might have hap-pened, and motives feel sufficiently unsett-led and shady at this point. While it may be possible that we figure out whodunit this early in the game, finding out if we’re right should still be worth reading the rest of the series. Mystery fans, even those leery of rea-

ding another weird animal mask story, should check this out, as it has the ma-kings of a very good read.

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Dossier Spécial:GUNDAm pART 4

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moBILE SUIT CRoSSBoNE GUNDAm

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Mobile Suit crossbone gundam (Kidou Senshi Kurosubōn Gandamu) is a manga set in the gundam Universal century. it was written & illustrated by yuichi hasegawa. it takes place in Uc 0133, ten years after the events of Mo-bile Suit gundam F91. it is a direct se-quel to the movie as well.

After the Cosmo Babylon Wars, Cosmo Babylonia collapses from civil conflicts af-ter Cecily Fairchild denounces the nation’s aristocratic ideals. However, new threats to peace began to surface in the UC (Univer-sal Century) 130s, when it is discovered the Jupiter Empire is conspiring to invade and conquer the Earth Sphere. After staging her death to avoid attention from the Ju-

piter Empire, Cecily takes on her original name of “Berah Ronah” and re-establishes the Crossbone Vanguard, garnering public support in her war against the ruthless Ju-piter Empire.The remnants of the Crossbone Vanguard

wage a secret war against the Jupiter Em-pire, which seeks to subject all humanity to the same totalitarian rule as the Jupiter Fleet’s own people. This control is based on chronic resource scarcity, and the story develops into something of a critique of the space colonization concept, i.e. aban-doning nature’s abundance in favor of a cold, cruel existence in the inhospitable realm of outer space. Crossbone Gundam also advances a conspiracy theory to ex-plain post-UC 0100 history. The Jupiter Empire, with its great wealth, provides funding and technology to anti-Federation groups in an attempt to hasten the govern-ment’s collapse. They originally supported the Crossbone Vanguard, then turned on them after Berah Ronah took charge and renounced their aggressive ways

volUMe 1chapter 1: Space pirateSThe year is U.C 0133. In space, a trans-

port ship guarded by a group of EMS-06 Bataras come under attack from space pi-

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rates. Just then, the pirates’ Gundam ap-pears from the mothership. A transport ship, the Smashion arrives at Jupiter, to the excitement of young student Tobia Arronax as his friend wonders why he was excited about going to “the middle of nowhere”. After the Smashion docks, an old man welcomes the exchange students to Jupiter as Tobia stares at the group of women set to head to Earth. He wonders if there were any girls on Jupiter as the old man tells the children that although they are six billion kilometers from Earth, their love for it was undying and that the information sharing between the youths of Earth and Jupiter was the best way for mankind to further their understanding with each other and how it was the will of the Jupiter Empire’s leader, Crux Do-gatie. After the speech, Tobia’s teacher, Professor Karas arrives to encourage To-bia to try hard. In a cafeteria, the kids all stare in amazement at the skies of Jupi-ter, the space colony obstructed due to the shadow. The Earth kids explain that they were raised in space colonies and that most of the people on the station were Jovian.

One of the girls explains that the Jovians had a much tighter enforcement on water and air usage, and that the crew members wear gloves due to there being a number stamped on their hand, signifying rank. One of the kids calls everyone’s attention to a computer monitor, where the space pirates performed their sixth attack on a Jovian transport. The kids read reports of the pirates possessing two Gundams.

Just then, a blonde girl runs into Tobia, being chased by guards who claim she’s a stowaway. The girl tries to tell Tobia that she isn’t a stowaway and was in the cargo area. The space pirates arrive and com-mence their attack on the space station. A team of Bataras launch from the space station to defend it, but a black Gundam and a white Gundam decimate the defense forces. In the hangar, Tobia saves the young girl from an explosion and gets in one of the remaining Bataras. One of the officers tries to stop him but Tobia says he has a degree to manufacture mobile suits and launches. Tobia acts as a turret and fires at the white Gundam, but it va-

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nishes from sight. The Gundam drops its cloak, fooling Tobia into thinking he hit it, but the Gundam gets up close and clashes sabers with Tobia. The Gundam slices To-bia’s Batara in half, but the pilot tells him to get out because he’ll smash the cockpit. Tobia wonders why they didn’t kill him and sees that the other Batara pilots are still alive. Tobia returns to the Smashion’s hangar and is shocked to see tons of poi-son gas canisters on a transport ship. Then, Professor Karas pulls a gun on Tobia from behind, but Tobia knocks him back. Karas attempts to choke Tobia, all while spou-ting that the Jovians had slowly gained the Earth Federation’s trust and were able to exchange students beneath their noses for 10 years, and only recently attempted to transport poison gas. Since Tobia saw the canisters, Karas attempts to kill him. Tobia grabs Karas’ gloved hand, which was labe-led “626”, while Karas says that he won’t let Tobia or the pirates get in the way of Crux Dogatie’s plans to subjugate Earth under the rule of the Jupiter Empire. Ka-ras is about to kill Tobia when the Gundam bursts into the Smashion’s hangar, sucking out Tobia, Karas, and the gas canisters. Tobia gets saved by the Gundam pilot who gives Tobia two choices. Forget about the incident and return to Earth, or face reality with the space pirates. Tobia asks who he is, and the pilot introduces himself to be Kincaido Nau, a space pirate for the Cross-bone Vanguard.

chapter 2: the naMe oF that DarkneSS iS JUpiterKincaido wals Tobia to the bridge of the

Mother Vanguard. There, Tobia meets the captain of the ship, Berah Ronah. She asks Tobia whether or not he wants to stay with the Vanguard and find out the truth or go back home to Earth and forget eve-rything. Tobia decides to stay with the pi-rates. After the Smashion gets rid of the poison gas canisters, the pirates escort the ship until it leaves the station. Tobia says that he wouldn’t back down from his deci-sion to stay with the pirates, and wondered

why Prof. Karas had smuggled poison gas. Kincaido approaches Tobia, who wonders if it’s safe to let the others go despite the threat from the empire. Kincaido says that the Jupiter Empire doesn’t target civilians and asks Tobia to help him with some work since they’re low on manpower. To-bia and Kincaido start peeling potatoes in the kitchen as Tobia asks if he was brought on only to be a kitchen worker. Kincaido

says that he wasn’t and says that he still has to work even though he’s a pilot.

Tobia then remembers the legacy of the old Crossbone Vanguard that took over Side 4 in order to establish their own in-dependent aristocratic nation known as Cosmo Babylonia. The founder Meitzer Ronah, was opposed by Berah who pushed for equality. A schism followed between the two sides, and the Crossbone Vanguard fell apart. Tobia recognizes Kincaido’s face from the same time period as well, but Kincaido tells him to forget about it. To-bia thinks back to the initial launch of the Mother Vanguard in U.C. 0128, but that all the crew were allegedly killed on its maiden voyage. Kincaido says that he and

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Berah are dead to the outside world. In the shower, Berah’s mechanical parrott Haro, alerts her to a silhouetted figure outside. Tobia and Kicaido walk from the kitchen as Tobia wonders if Berah revived the Van-guard to re-establish Cosmo Babylonia. Kincaido says that Berah never thought about doing that, and the only revived the name to get supplies easier. Then, an angry Berah tosses out the out the young girl from the space station. Berah and the rest

of the crew wonder who the girl is as the young girl clings to Tobia begging to not be sent back to Jupiter. Kincaido asks for the young girl’s name, and she introduces herself as Bernadette Briett. Tobia thinks that Bernadette probably saw the gas ca-nisters or worse and wanted to hide from the Jovians. Bernadette again begs not to be sent back to Jupiter, but Berah explains that the Smashion already left for Earth. As a result, Berah places Bernadette under Tobia’s guard as an assignment. Kincai-do calls Bernadette “Princess” as Berah is called to the bridge and invites Tobia and Bernadette.

Berah talks to Kincaido about whether Tobia is ready to go on a certain mission, and Kincaido says that Tobia has the guts

for it. Kincaido says that it wouldn’t be good if they kept delaying the mission, despite Berah’s warnings about previous attempts. Upon reaching Meteor 202 and confirming it to be a Jupiter base, Berah has the Vanguard launch a team of XM-08 Zondo Gei’s, followed by Kincaido in the Crossbone X-1. Berah sternly reminds Zabine Chareux that they are not to kill any of the enemy pilots as he launches in the Crossbone X-2. Tobia is in awe at the

Gundams, and Berah explains that a inde-pendent contractor had contacted them and delivered them the Gundams. She then asks Tobia what the asteroid looks like to him. He says it’s a simple mining satellite, but Berah says its one of the Jovian bases and has the Mother Vanguard open fire. In res-ponse, Tobia implores Berah to stop firing, but a barrage of missiles heads for the ship. The Mother Vanguard’s shields activate as teams of Bataras head for the ship. Berah says that after defeating the original Cross-bone Vanguard, they managed to discover the Jupiter Empire, who had covered their tracks to avoid attention and had secretly supported those on Earth who wanted to start wars. She tells Tobia that the Jovians were biding their time, and waiting for the best opportunity to invade Earth. She

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explains that Jupiter was militaristically a small nation compared to the Earth Federa-tion, which meant that they would have to invade Earth in one foul swoop. To do that, they have kept a neighborly relationship with the Earth Federation. Berah tells To-bia that the Jovians would kill anyone who discovered their plans.

Just then, a nuclear missile heads for the Mother Vanguard, which doesn’t have time to defend itself, so Berah has Kincaido des-troy the missile. He uses the Zanbuster to destroy the missile before it impacted with the ship. She tells Tobia that the goal of the new Crossbone Vanguard was to defeat the leader of the Jupiter Empire, Crux Dogatie.

CHAPTER 3: AMbUSH TRAPAt the Jupiter Space Colony, an advisor

speaks to Crux Dogatie about the Cross-bone Vanguard’s successful destruction of Meteor 202. The other advisors blame one of their own for losing 30% of their mis-siles in the attack, but Crux laugs and says that the EMS-10 Pez Batara and the EMA-03 Gangrijo were completed and suggested using them in their next battle. He then de-clares that the pirates wouldn’t get away with their actions. At the same time, Tobia is practicing combat maneuvers in a Bata-ra, as veteran Umon Samon tells Tobia not to focus on Jupiter’s gravity. Kincaido tells him not to use full power all the time, as Bernadette brings the pilots food. A month into joining the Vanguard, Bernadette talks to Tobia about joining the pirates. He tries to show off by lifting a cart with one arm despite being in a zero-gee environment. The two talk about how their opinions on the pirates changed after joining them. Just then, Kincaido arrives and Berna-dette starts chasing him asking if he wants more juice. In response, Tobia wonders if Kincaido was a pedophile. Kincaido then changes the subject and starts teaching To-bia about the Anti-Beam Cloak while the latter complains about the long hours..

Kincaido explains that the cloak absorbs

beam shots by dispersing the energy on the outer layers on impact. Though the cloak doesn’t use energy like a Beam Shield, it can only resist 5 consecutive beam shots. Kincaido and Tobia head to the bridge when Berah reports that they received an SOS from a carrier. Kincaido sees that the ship is in low orbit, citing heavy potential for a trap. Berah says they can’t leave the people there, and wanted to send out the X-1 and three Zondo Gei’s. Tobia’s sur-prised that they wanted Zabine to stay on board, but Berah didn’t want to risk both Gundams. Later, Tobia asks if Zabine was Kincaido’s rival. Kincaido explains that during the War of Cosmo Babylonia, he was fighting for the resistance while Za-bine was with the Crossbone Vanguard. Tobia thought it was strange how two ri-vals could work together, but Kincaido says that he and Zabine would always be rivals. He has Tobia join him in the upco-ming mission, but when Tobia expresses his desire to become a Gundam pilot, Kin-caido asks if he wants to actually try it. As the ship approaches, the Zondo Geis and the X-1 launch. Sitting in the X-2’s cock-pit, Zabine thinks about how he and Berah

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are the only ones on the ship when he sees Kincaido eating an apple, shocked that he’s not in the X-1. On the bridge, Berah wonders why the X-1 was wobbling in space. On the MS deck, Zabine explains that he left the Crossbone Vanguard 10 years prior becaue he couldn’t stand their cruel methods. However, Kincaido knows he still has noble blood and wonders why he had truly returned.

Tobia, piloting the X-1, stabilizes the suit and approaches the carrier. Umon has a sensation and tells Tobia to get away from the carrier. However, scores of Pez Bataras emerge from the carrier, heading straight for the Mother Vanguard. As To-bia and the Zondo Geis rush back to the ship, a large beam emerges from the car-rier, blowing off the leg of Josh’s Zondo Gei. The mobile armor Gangrijo appears and fires at the suits. Despite the Mother Vanguard activating the beam shield, the Pez Bataras break through with their beam axes. Bernadette is impressed that the

ship’s shield could cover the whole body, but Berah tells her that the shield could only last for 20 minutes. She tells the crew that they’ll crash into Jupiter’s atmosphere if they can’t destroy the Bataras in 20 mi-nutes. She tells Kincaido to return to the ship, but he’s in the hangar and launches in a spare Core Fighter with Zabine in the X-2. Zabine tries to chop down one of the Pez Bataras with the Beam Zanber, but the Pez Batara blocks it due to the beam axe. Zabine shoves the X-2’s shot lancer into the side of the Pez Batara, alerting the others of their weakness. Tobia charges towards the Gangrijo, remembering that Kincaido told him that since the beam shield was standard on all mobile suits, the only way to get a hit was to move in close, which the Crossbone Gundam was designed for. Tobia charges the mobile ar-mor but gets grabbed by its claw. As the cannon charges, Tobia’s core fighter is ejected as Kincaido takes over the X-1. He breaks free from the Gangriji’s grasp and then stabs the suit with the Beam sabers

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and Heat Knives, disabling the mobile ar-mor. The remaining Pez Bataras retreat, as Tobia laments that being a pilot comes down to skill, and Zabine wonders if Kin-caido trusts him enough yet. Kincaido and Tobia report to the bridge for their puni-shment as the two try to put the blame on one another for the snafu with the X-1. Be-rah laments that they can’t delay the spe-cial mission any more, and assigns Tobia and Kincaido with the task of infiltraiting the Jupiter Empire to discover the whe-reabouts of Crux Dogatie, and then to go on toilet duty for a week.

chapter 4: into the eMpire

At an oxygen-gathering base within Jupi-

ter, a base commander picks up a distress signal, as well as a group of other suits. The signal reveals Tobia in a Zondo Gei being chased by the Vanguard. In res-ponse, Lieutenant Barnes Gernsback leads his team in his red Batara to save Tobia. In the X-2, Zabine wishes Tobia luck as he blasts the Zondo Gei’s left arm and leg off. However, Barnes manages to destroy the

X-2’s tail booster. While fighting, Umon in the X-1 tells Zabine to fall back, and one of the Jovian soldiers wants to chase down the Vanguard. However, Barnes says they can’t due to the Batara’s limited cruising speed.

Back at the base, Tobia explains his si-tuation and that he pretended to work with the pirates and learned how to pilot the Zondo Gei due to having previous expe-rience at operating industrial mobile suits. The doctors then check on Kinkedo, who Tobia says covered his escape. Kinke-do’s face is falsely scarred, but the head of the station profusely thanks Barnes for the capture of the Zondo Gei. He then at-tempts to grill Tobia for information on the Vanguard, but Barnes tells him that getting the injured Kinkedo to a hospi-tal was more important. Barnes tells To-bia that he used to have a son that would have been around his age, but died in an accident at a resource gathering base. In an elevator, Kinkedo then gets up and knocks out a security guard.

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Tobia then thinks back to when he obser-ved Berah stranding a group of captured Jovian soldiers in space. She told them to reflect on their new lives if they survived. After releasing them, Tobi asks if they did it every time, and she said yes, adding that although Crux wants to start a war with Earth, not all of Jupiter’s civilians wanted one.

Tobia then asks why they don’t put in their own men to infiltrate Jupiter, but she says that they have, but none came back. Tobia visits Kincaido, who had his finger-prints changed and used the ID number of a dead Jovian soldier. Tobia laments at how they couldn’t bring the death toll down to zero, but Kincaido says that’s part of war. In the hangar, Tobia wonders what the point of sparing people’s lives was if there would still be deaths in war. Then, Zabine, as though he read Tobia’s mind, tells him that while he agrees with

Berah waging war on the Jupiter Empire, he doesn’t think that sparing pilot’s lives was a good thing, arguing that any pilots left alive could become their enemy again, and it would be the only way to quickly end a war. Then, Bernadette shows up wondering why Tobia volunteered for the mission.

Kinkedo reassures Bernadette that Tobia would be fine, and Umon adds that Tobia has the qualities of a Newtype. Yona ex-plains that a Newtype has a higher level of intuition and possible telepathy. Umon brags that during the One Year War, he defeated six MS-09R Rick Dom units with a single RB-79 Ball. Umon tells him that his abilities will awaken after a few near-death experiences. Bernadette then gives Tobia a necklace for good luck.

Back to the present, Tobia and Kinkedo walk through a hall with the guard’s body

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on a stretcher. Tobia then remembers being lectured by Berah on how to pro-perly infiltrate a location and the potential need for using a Jovian mobile suit. She told Tobia that the objective was to find Crux Dogatie’s location, and that their previous attempts were unsuccessful due to Jovians destroying all of the data.

Tobia then sees a woman begging a doc-tor for more water, but the doctor tells her that water and oxygen must be equally rationed, even for patients. Being sym-pathetic, Tobia gives some water to the woman’s daughter, getting everyone’s at-tention. To save their cover, Kinkedo re-peatedly punches Tobia, telling him that

his action was like taking water from Do-gatie himself. He proceeds to beat up To-bia while subtlely telling the girl to take the water. After their narrow escape, the two run into a heavily bandaged patient wearing a mask. After disposing of the guard, Tobia steps out into the residential block, where to his shock there is no gra-vity.

in a cafe, kinkedo explains that ha-ving no gravity allows space to be used more efficiently, unlike on Earth where having gravity was normal. .Just then, a team of security mobile suits shows up to capture tobia and kinkedo.

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volUMe SiX: give-anD-takechapter 44: SUcceSSorThe Yotsuba group briefly mentions Hatori’s death. They believe it is an example of

what happens if any of them tries to defy Kira. They move on to the matter at hand. They have received information that Eraldo Coil uncovered about L. However, it is general information, which leads the group to believe that Coil knows nothing about L. At the end of the report, Coil does warn the group about concentrating their killings du-ring the weekend. They decide to only meet every two weeks and only kill two or three people each month, just so they don’t look to suspicious.Then, they talk about who they will kill this week. Soichiro and Light are shocked at

seeing how easily the men decide who will die. This is proof enough for the investi-gation team to arrest the men. However, L counters by saying that there is no absolute proof until the people mentioned in the meeting die. Soichiro and Light strongly disa-gree with letting innocent people be killed by doing nothing. However, L insists that if they arrest the members now, their whole case will be destroyed.Suddenly, Light comes up with a brilliant idea by calling the Yotsuba group member

Namikawa and telling him that he is L. Light reveals that he has cameras set up in the room and plenty of evidence that all of them are cooperating with Kira. However, if he can somehow delay the killings that they are planning to commit until next month, all Yotsuba group members who are not Kira will be granted immunity. He warns him against telling the other members because he has the power to arrest them all. Namiwa-ka hangs up the phone and convinces the other members to wait a month in order to let Coil capture L. After a month has passed, they can continue the murders.L is amazed that Light could figure out such a brilliant strategy before he could. He

remarks that Light might be able to succeed him as the next L.

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chapter 45: crazyL goes one step further and asks Light if he could take over the name L when he dies.

Light refuses, but then realizes that L was testing him. If Light was Kira, he would willingly accept L’s offer. However, if Light has somehow passed his powers over to another Kira, L believes that Light has set up some way to get those powers back. Light then asks L if he honestly believes that he could be a heartless murderer. When L res-ponds yes, Light punches him in the face.

Soichiro is eager to stop the killings and arrest the remaining seven men. However, L notes that there’s a possibility that Kira is only connected to one of the seven men, and even if they arrested all of them, the killings wouldn’t stop. L has grown tired of the ar-guing and decides to work by himself in dealing with the Yotsuba group. Soichiro and the others can do as they wish.L goes to Misa’s room and drags Light along with

him since he is still handcuffed to him. L asks Misa to help him with the Kira investigation because it will make Light happy. His plan is for Coil to tell the Yot-suba group that he has uncovered evidence that Misa was captured by L and detained under suspicion of being the second Kira. The Yotsuba group will des-perately want to meet Misa, and during the interview, she should say how she looks up to Kira and wants to meet him. Light objects putting Misa in danger, but Misa is determined to do this out of love for Light.

chapter 46: ill SUiteDThe Yotsuba group is having an emergency meeting after Coil has sent them a report

saying that Misa Amane may know who L is. They decide to ask Misa to be in one of their commercial so that they can interview her about L. In addition, they call Coil and demand that he conduct the interview himself. Coil agrees but for a hefty price.The Yotsuba member who is Kira is busy writing the names of criminals into the Death

Note. He concludes that Misa was the second Kira who gave up ownership of the note-book in order to lose all of her memories. He says that after he talks to Misa about L’s identiy, he will kill L and then marry Misa. Rem is shocked to hear this and decides to take manners into her own hands by tearing a piece of paper from the Death NoteMisa meets with the Yotsuba members and Coil, who is Aiber in disguise. Coil goes

straight to the point and asks Misa if she looks up to Kira because he killed the burglar that murdered her parents. Misa denies it, but Coil then confronts with the fact that she said she came to Tokyo in order to meet Kira. Misa again denies this, however Coil pressures her to admit that she has been apprehended by L. She tells them that she was blindfolded and only heard his voice.After a while, the group takes a bathroom break. Misa is alone in the ladies’ restroom

until Rem touches Misa with a piece of the Death Note and covers her mouth so that she won’t scream at the sight of a shinigami.

CHAPTER 47: IMPERTINENCEEven though touching only a piece of the notebook won’t bring back her memories,

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Misa can now at least see Rem, and she can explain what’s going on. Rem tells Misa that Light is Kira and that she was once an owner of the Death Note. She tells her that Light’s plan was to work with L in catching another Kira after gaining his trust by losing all memories of the Death Note. Then, after Kira is caught, he will touch the notebook and gain all of his memories once again. Rem also tells Misa that he is willing to help Light with his plan if it’ll get the Death Note out of the hands of the vile current owner. He cautions her to be careful around the Yotsuba group since they are willing to kill her after they have used her.Misa leaves the bathroom and goes back to the room where she is being interviewed.

chapter 48: give-anD-takeRem is standing behind Yotsuba group member, Kyosuke Higuchi, the current Death

Note owner. Misa is disgusted because he remembers that he hit on her repeatedly at the party.

Back at headquarters, Light is worrying about Misa’s safety. Soichiro is willing to go on TV and tell eve-ryone what the Yotsuba group is doing, hoping that it will prevent the killings. L insists that arresting the Yotsuba group will let Kira escape that he waits a mon-th before taking any action. Misa returns safely from the Yotsuba group, and L and Light tell her that she is to do the commercial only as an actress and not an investigator. Misa agrees to obey. The next day, Misa and Mogi, who is now acting as her new manager, stop by the To-Oh Women’s Medical University Hospital so that Misa can quickly use the bathroom before she goes home. In the bathroom, she meets a friend who is working as a nurse. She had previously told her friend that she is planning to go on a date, but because she was a celebrity, it was hard for her to get any privacy. Nori exchanges outfits with her and agrees to be Misa for a while.Misa, in a nurse’s outfit and a fake wig, escapes from

Mogi and meets with Higuchi who is taking her out on a date. Mogi realizes that Misa got away and calls the investigation team. Light tries to call her, but Misa’s phone is off.Rem, who is also in the car, is confused as to why Misa is going on a date with Higuchi

and if it’s part of Light’s plan. Misa then tells Higuchi that she is the second Kira. She tells Higuchi that it is her dream to one day marry the real Kira. However, she will only reveal her power to the real Kira. Higuchi teases her saying that he might be Kira and dares Misa to prove that she is the second Kira. Higuchi tells her to kill a corrupt loan shark, and he will call his office to see if he has died. Misa turns around and pretends to write something. Rem realizes what she is doing and uses her Death Note to kill the loan shark. Forty seconds later, Higuchi calls up the loan shark, and his subordinates confirm that he has just collapsed. Higuchi, then, proclaims that he is indeed Kira and that she should marry him. Misa tells him to prove it by not killing people for a while and then starting again when she tells him to.Afterwards, Misa comes back to headquarters to show the team the evidence she com-

piled. She had recorded part of the conversation with her cell phone.

chapter 49: potteD plant

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If the killings stop, then the team can conclude that Higuchi is Kira. However, L and Light realize that without Higuchi showing how he kills as Kira, then arresting him will be meaningless. Nevertheless, Light tries to convince L to capture Higuchi now and try to figure out how he kills once he’s detained. L says that he needs time to think it over.Afterwards, L calls Wedy and orders her to focus her spying solely on Higuchi. He

orders her to install cameras and listening devices in all of Higuchi’s cars L asks Light if he hypothetically was Kira and the powers can be passed on from person to person, does he think that it was because of Light’s will or the will of someone else working behind the scenes. Light concludes that it would probably be his will to pass on the power because if another person was in control, they would not have waited until after Light was captured.L says that their task now is to find a way to make Higuchi show them how he kills

without transferring his powers to someone else. L figures out a plan in which Matsuda will go on Sakura TV and threaten to reveal the identity of Kira. Higuchi will remember Matsuda as the nosy manager of Misa Amane who might have overheard the conversa-tion inside the Yotsuba meeting room. Higuchi will try to kill Matsuda, but then realize that he has been given a fake name. Higuchi will call Misa and Mogi. Then, he will try to call Yoshida productions where the manager will tell him that his resume, which is in the Yoshida productions office, contains his real name. Higuchi will then have no choice but to show his method of killing, which will be caught by the cameras set up by Wedy.

CHAPTER 50: YoTSUbAThree Yotsuba group members, Namikawa, Mido, and Shimura meet at a house to

discuss the meetings. They are almost sure that Higuchi is Kira. Now, they are sick and tired of being intimidated by Kira. Light, as L, once again calls Namikawa. This time, Namikawa reveals to the other group members that he is talking to L while assuring L that they are not Kira. Light tells them to call Higuchi and tell him to watch a Kira special report on Sakura TV. He agrees. After Namikawa calls Higuchi asking him to turn on the TV, he discovers a man hidden by a screen telling the interviewer that he overheard eight people talking about killing people in a meeting. The man knows who Kira is and will reveal the answer at the end of this program. Then, the screen acciden-tally falls, and Matsuda is revealed. Higuchi is astounded that he is still alive because he had written his name in Death Note just in case. Higuchi then realizes that it might have been a stage name. The plan goes perfectly. First, Higuchi calls Misa, but she doesn’t answer the phone. Then, he calls Mogi, but he can’t recall Matsuda’s real name. Mogi offers to connect Higuchi with the president of Yoshida productions. Watari, acting as the president, tells him to go to the Yoshida offices and find out his real name in his resume. Higuchi packs his bag with a gun and the Death Note and goes to his car with Wedy following close behind him.

chapter 51: MiSUnDerStanDingL and the team watch Higuchi actions in the car from the cameras that Wedy had

implanted. Higuchi wonders if Matsuda is smart enough to shred up his resume before going on television. He asks Rem, who has been following him all of this time, for her opinion. L and Light are puzzled as to why Higuchi has begun talking to himself. Rem realizes that this is all part of Light’s plan and encourages him to attempt to kill Mat-suda. Light wonders who Rem is, and L suggests that it could be a shinigami, much to Misa’s surprise.

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Higuchi enters Yoshida productions and find’s Matsuda’s resume with the phony name, “Taichiro Yamashita.” Higuchi takes out the Death Note, writes the name down and leaves. Light is bewildered by these actions, but L notes that he may be preparing to do something in the car.

Higuchi returns to the car to watch TV, and after 40 seconds, Matsuda doesn’t die. Higuchi gets upset saying that he didn’t die. Baffled, the team tries to figure out when exactly did Higuchi perform the killing. L wonders if writing down the name is his me-thod of killing.

Then, Higuchi tells Rem that he wants to make “the trade.” L and the others continue to watch. Wedy, Aiber, and Mogi follow him. Just then, a police officer on a motorcycle pulls Higuchi over for speeding. Higuchi secretly writes down the police officer’s name in the Death Note, which he can see thanks to the shinigami eyes. As Higuchi speeds away, the police officer is chasing after him until he gets into a terrible accident. Upon seeing this, L says that they now must assume that Higuchi can kill like the second Kira, just by seeing a person’s face. He orders that they have enough evidence and will now attempt to capture him before he kills any of the members of the investigation team.

chapter 52: Split SeconDL tells the director of the NPA to send out units to capture Higuchi in his car. Howe-

ver, no police officer should get too close without something to shield their face. Then, L orders Soichiro, who is at Sakura TV where they’re filming the special, to proceed with their emergency plan. Soichiro must replace Matsuda and the interviewer with mannequins and run pre-recorded audio that will make it seem like the interview has not stopped. Light and L leave the headquarters on a helicopter in order to follow Higuchi’s whereabouts. Higuchi goes back to Yotsuba building in order to try and find security camera footage of Matsuda. However, Wedy has already disposed of all security camera footage of Matsuda. Desperate, Higuchi de-cides to go to Sakura TV and kill him in the studio.

At the Sakura TV studios, Wedy, Soichiro, Mogi, and Aiber are waiting for him hidden behind a piece of set scenery. When Higuchi finds out that Matsuda and the interviewer have been replaced by dummies, he is imme-diately ambushed by the team. Higuchi shoots Soichiro in the shoulder with the gun he se-cretly packed and flees to his car. He speeds through the highway and realizes that he has been cut off by a blockade of police cars. L and Light with Watari and his sniper rifle join the chase in the helicopter. He tries to escape, but Watari shoots down the car and makes it crash on to a wall. Then, Higuchi puts his own gun to his head and threatens to kill himself. However, Watari quickly shoots the gun away from his hand.

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volUMe Seven: zeroCHAPTER 53: SCREAMThe investigation team, with their faces covered, goes over to Higuchi and arrests him.

Mogi gives him a headset, and through the headset, L demands that Higuchi tell him how he has been killing, threatening to torture him if he refused to cooperate. Higuchi tells him that there is a notebook that kills whoever’s name you write in it and that the notebook is in his bag. Soichiro checks to his bag and touches the notebook. However, Soichiro is surprised to find himself face-to-face with Rem. He screams in horror at this sight. Mogi goes over to console Soichiro and picks up the notebook. He can now see it too.L demands that they hand him the notebook. L picks it up and sees Rem. Now, it all

makes sense in L’s head. The diary entry said that they should show their notebooks in Aoyama, and Light and Misa met in Aoyama. L realizes that there is probably more than one notebook. Meanwhile, Light takes the notebook from L in order to see what the fuss was about.

In an instant, all of Light’s memories concerning the Death Note come pouring back to him.

Light tells L that it’s unbelievable that a notebook can kill a person and then goes to his laptop in order to compare the names of the victims with the names in the notebook.

Light then says, “I’ve won… exactly as planned!”

chapter 54: inSiDeIn a flashback sequence dating all the way back when Misa was detained by L, Light

asks Rem and Ryuk what happens to the ownership of the notebook once a human has given it up. They answer that ownership reverts back to the original shinigami owner. Then, L asks if only one notebook is needed to retain all memories. They confirm this. L also asks if he can only regain the memories of the Death Note by regaining ownership of the Death Note. Rem answers that all that is needed to regain the memories is to touch the notebook. However, once a human loses contact with the notebook and he has not reclaimed ownership, then his regained memories will once again vanish.

Light then gives up the ownership of the Death Note and returns his Death Note to Ryuk. In turn, Ryuk gives the notebook to Rem. Then, Light instruct to give the note-book to a greedy human being who is willing to kill anyone for personal gain. However, this person must promise to continue killing criminals in exchange. Light promises Rem that if she does this, Misa will be free from her confinement. If she is never liberated, then Rem has every right in the world to kill Light.

Light then buries the other notebook in the forest where he plans to have Misa find it later. He plans to throw off L’s suspicion of him by working closely with him to find the new Kira. Once L and his investigation team has gained possession of the Death Note, Light will touch it and kill the current owner of the notebook, thus regaining ownership. Light has even prepare a piece of the Death Note that is hidden inside his watch in order to kill the current Death Note owner.

Back in the present, Higuchi is being taken away by the investigation team. Being care-

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ful not to let himself get spotted by L, Light takes out the Death Note piece in his watch and write Higuchi’s name in blood. Higuchi collapses.

chapter 55: creation Back at the headquarters, the team wonders how Higuchi could have suddenly died.

They ask Rem, whom they can all see now, and she reveals nothing in order to protect Misa. Aizawa reads the rules of the Death Note. He turns to the back of the book and read two additional rules:

If the person using the note fails to consecutively write names of people to be killed within 13 days of each other, then the user will die.

If you make this note unusable by tearing it up or burning it, all the humans who have touched the note will die.

Rem realizes that Light made Ryuk write two fake rules down in the Death Note in exchange for an apple.

However, the team now concludes that Light and Misa cannot be Kira and the second Kira because they were detained for more than 13 days without writing a name down in the notebook, and they didn’t die. L, sadly, agrees. Unable to destroy it, the team decides to lock the notebook up where no one can find it. L asks Rem if there are other notebooks and if the same rules apply to all of them. Rem says they do and doesn’t tell L that the two rules are fake, in order to protect Misa.

Even though he still suspects Light, L agrees to remove the handcuffs from him How-ever, Light volunteers to keep helping the Kira investigation. Afterwards, L questions Rem that if the “eyes” that the second Kira mentioned were the eyes that allow a human to see a person’s name when they see their face. Rem does not deny it, but tells L that he can only tell the details of the “eye trade” to the owner of the Death Note. L realizes that if Misa was indeed the second Kira, she probably saw his name that day when they met at To-Oh University. However, Misa seems to have lost her memories, and the fake rule said that if an owner doesn’t use the notebook after 13 days, they die.

Misa has been freed and says good-bye to Light who is staying with the investigation. When Misa hugs him, Light whispers in her ear that she should dig up something at the location that he tells her.

chapter 56: eMBraceMisa digs up the Death Note in the forest and regains her memories. Along with the

notebook, there is a note instructing Misa to remember L’s real name from the time she met him at To-Oh University. She should write his name down on the Death Note but not until after Light gives her the word. He also instructs her to get a piece of the Death Note, rebury the notebook, and touch Light with a piece of it.

However, Misa soon becomes miserable once again because she can’t remember L’s real name. Just then, Ryuk appears from the shinigami realm. Misa gives him an apple from Light. She explains to Ryuk that she wants to make the shinigami eye trade once again because she can’t remember L’s name, and he doesn’t want to disappoint Light. Ryuk agrees but warns that her lifespan will once again be cut in half.

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Light knows that he can now kill L anytime he wants to if Misa remembers his name. If she doesn’t, he expects her to make the shinigami eye trade once again. Misa comes back to the headquarters and is standing in front of the security cameras. Rem is shocked to find Ryuk standing behind Misa. She realizes, to her horror, that Misa has once again made the eye trade with a shinigami.

Light goes downstairs to greet Misa, and she touches him with a piece of the notebook. Light can see Ryuk once again. Light pretends to be shocked at Misa making the eye trade, however, he promises that once L is gone, she will be part of his new utopian world.

CHAPTER 57: Two CHoICESLight instructs Misa to continue writing the names of criminals in the Death Note so

that they can avert suspicion once again.

L continues to grill Rem with questions about the nature of the notebook. When he sees Light’s tenacity in staying with the investigation, he wonders if he’s the one now being watched.

The next day, Aizawa comes by with the news that Kira has continued killing criminals once again. Rem realizes that it must be Misa doing this.

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L notes that it’s suspicious that there’s another notebook out there, and this happens the moment that Misa is set free. Rem begins to worry about Misa, and Light smiles. L talks about finding out the identity of Kira and forcing them to write his own name down in the notebook in order to test it out. Rem realizes that eventually L will find Misa, and most likely, she will receive the maximum punishment.

Then, it dawns on Rem. This is part of Light’s plan. Light wants Rem to save Misa’s life by writing down L’s name on the Death Note. Because she will write down L’s name to save Misa’s life, Rem will most certainly die. However, she can’t kill Light in retaliation because he is the only one that can possibly avert suspicion away from Misa. She will be caught quicker if Light dies. Rem now has a choice: either both Rem and L die or Misa dies. Meanwhile, L is still terribly confused about the whole ordeal, espe-cially about the 13 day rule. He finally decides to test out the 13 day rule by having a criminal write down a name in the Death Note. If the criminal is still alive after 13 days, then the rule will be proven to be a fake. If this happens, Misa will certainly be captured.

Rem panics and leaves the room. While Watari is talking to L over the computer screen, he suddenly collapses.

chapter 58: the FeelingS WithinAll of the investigation data is erased, which means one thing: Watari is dead.

The team notices that Rem is missing, and L quickly realizes that the shinigami must have killed Watari.

As he’s about to tell the team of his discovery, L collapses.

Light holds the dying L in his arms and looks down on him, smiling fiendishly.

L finally realizes that he was right all along. Light is Kira. He has always been Kira. And he will continue to be Kira.

Then, L closes his eyes and dies.

Rem is wasting away in the other room. Her whole body is turning into dust.

Panicked, the investigation team takes L to the hospital where he is pronounced dead. Pretending to be angry, Light goes to search for the shinigami that killed L.

In reality, Light knows that he quickly has to find the remains of Rem and retrieve the Death Note she left behind. He does so and shows the team the remains of a shinigami.

Then, Light swears that he will avenge L’s death.

However, for now, Light has won. He has gotten rid of Watari. Most importantly, he has outsmarted L, and now he is out of the way.

Now, there is no one stopping Light from being god of a new world.

chapter 59: zero

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The investigation group is surprise to read in the newspaper that Watari, whose real name was Quillsh Wammy, was a world-renowned inventor who opened up several orphanages.

In one of Watari’s orphanages called Wammy’s House, one of the caretakers notices that his cell phone is counting down the hours until all of L’s data is deleted. Mean-while, an orphan named Mello plays soccer outside while another orphan named Near stays inside playing with puzzle pieces.

Back at the headquarters, Soichiro tells the team that he couldn’t tell the director of the NPA about L’s death because he fears that he will completely stop the Kira inves-tigation. They decide that in order to avert suspicion of L’s whereabouts, they have to pretend L is still alive. They all elect Light to play the part of the new L. Light thinks to himself that with L now gone, it is easy to do whatever he pleases. They also decide that Soichiro will be the one to hide the Death Note from now on.

Kira definitely exists, and he’s using another notebook. The investigation team is de-termined to catch him.

Light, Misa, and Ryuk are walking down the street commenting on Light’s new-found victory. Light asks Misa to live in an apartment with him, and they shall build a new world together.

The countdown clock that the orphanage caretaker has been keeping track of has final-ly reached zero. All of the data about L has been erased, and a messages flashes on the phone, “L is dead.”

The caretaker calls both Near and Mello into his room, and tells them the bad news.

CHAPTER 60: KIDNAPPING In this chapter, several fact blurbs are shown. They reveal that Wedy, Aiber, and the

remaining members of the Yotsuba group all die soon afterwards. On May 1st, 2005, “L” requests that all police and media refrain from making suspects’ faces public. In response, the internet is flooded with information and pictures of criminals. “Light Yag-ami continues to brilliantly play the roles of both L and Kira.”

Four years later, an odd blond eighteen-year old named Near who plays with his hair and sits with one leg up to a chair talks with the president of the United States along with the director of the FBI. Near tells the president that he believes that the real L is dead and that Kira kills using a notebook of death that still resides with the Japanese police. The president asks who he is, and the director of the FBI answers that he is L’s true successor.

The president establishes the SPK (the Special Provisions for Kira), a group composed of FBI and CIA agents working with Near as leader to catch Kira.

On April 2009, Light Yagami, age 23, enters the National Police Agency and is as-signed to the Intelligence and Information Bureau. Kira continues to pass judgment on criminals, and the world is divided into the people that cower in fear and the people that think he is a god.

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The investigation team is spending some time at Soichiro’s house and talking to Light’s sister, Sayu. Suddenly, Aiwaza calls them saying that the director of the NPA has been kidnapped. They ask if the kidnappers made any demands. Aiwaza tells them that the kidnappers want the Death Note in exchange for the director’s safety.

Light is astounded that someone else outside the Kira investigation team knows of the Death Note’s existence.

Meanwhile, a young man named Mello, who is always seen munching on chocolate bars, has held the director of the NPA captive. They ask him who the members of the NPA force that worked on the Kira investigation with L are. The NPA director reveals the name of the investigation team—among them, Soichiro Yagami. He also reveals to the NPA director that America knows about the existence of the Death Note and will do whatever is in their power to obtain it.

The next day, the NPA gets a visit from an FBI agent. He tells them that he does not trust the Japanese police and wants them to hand over the notebook. Soichiro accuses the FBI agent of kidnapping the director of the NPA, but the FBI agent denies this. The SPK and Near is listening to this conversation.

One of Mello’s bodyguards tells him that the director of the NPA has hung himself. Mello realizes that this was the work of Kira. He is now determined to abduct Soichiro Yagami’s daughter, Sayu.

chapter 61: nUMBer tWoIn this flashback scene, the caretaker at Wammy’s House tells Near and Mello that L

is dead. Mello is shocked while Near quietly comments that L lost his life because he could not solve the “puzzle”. Because L has died without choosing an heir, the caretaker

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suggests that Mello and Near work together to catch Kira. Mello, however, is tired of coming number two behind Near. He decides to leave the orphanage and catch Kira in his own way.

In the present day, Mello’s gang asks him why he’s so obsessed with the notebook. He answers because he wants to find Kira before Near does.

Back at the NPA headquarters, Soichiro refuses to hand the Death Note to the FBI agent. He gets a call from Near who orders that he tell Soichiro that they are willing to help them in the investigation and if he does trade the notebook for the director’s life, they will have a chance to retrieve the notebook for themselves. The investigation team agrees to let the FBI help them retrieve the director of the NPA.

However, the kidnappers call Soichiro telling him that the director is dead and that the notebook will now be traded for Soichiro Yagami’s daughter Sayu. Light is upset that he didn’t see through the director’s kidnapping as a possible diversion.

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